Cornwall woman takes vehicle for accidental, two-week joyride

After 2 weeks, she came back to Enterprise return the vehicle, and she made sure she complained to the manager about giving her a dirty, obviously used auto.

The auto started right up and she drove off because the vehicle, much like her rental did not use a key to start the auto, but a key fob.

From there she headed to Walmart, where she did a little shopping before tracking down a black vehicle in the sea of cars parked outside.

"For the next two weeks, the woman drove around and used the black vehicle for her regular everyday activities", seemingly oblivious to the fact that the auto she was driving was not the same one that she had rented, the police said.

Both vehicles used a keyless entry remote, similar to this one.

Cornwall police say she drove the rented black Nissan Sentra sedan to a nearby Walmart to pick up some groceries, but upon exiting the store she got into a black Infiniti QX50 luxury SUV parked nearby instead. The owner of the vehicle she drove away in had left his fob in the auto.

Following the comical situation, police warned drivers to not to leave key fobs in their cars, because you never know who might take it.

This allowed the woman to drive off, completely unaware that it wasn't her rental.

The woman - who police described as being "confused and a wee bit embarrassed herself" - contacted police, explaining that she had accidentally taken an Infinity and driven around in it for two weeks.

In the end - It was the manager at the Enterprise who was able to crack the case.

The man whose auto was stolen came into the same Enterprise to rent a vehicle after realizing his auto was no longer in the Walmart parking lot.

"We investigate stolen vehicles but this is definitely a unique situation for us", said Stephanie MacRae, communications coordinator with Cornwall Police. When the woman who stole the auto tried to return the vehicle, the manager realized what happened. The keys the woman had returned belonged to an Infiniti vehicle, not the Nissan she had rented.

When, dropping off the Infiniti at the Enterprise outlet, she complained to the rental manager about the messy interior and the clubs, he noted the key he'd given her didn't match the vehicle she'd returned. Cue a phone call to police and, soon after, a happy reunion between a auto whose rightful owner believed it had been stolen, instead of borrowed by mistake.

There were no official charges so this story has a happy ending.

She wouldn't listen when the manager informed her they weren't renting this model of vehicle.

He had remembered the owner of the Infiniti, who also went to Enterprise to rent a auto, thinking his vehicle was in fact stolen.